Garden happenings

This unnecessarily large katydid was perched on the sun umbrella on our back patio a few days ago. By morning it was gone, much to my relief. Bugs....I don't love them.

Emma and I did some weeding, pruning, and deadheading today.

The salvia is having some secondary flowers so I deadheaded them to see whether that helps encourage more blooms. The dead heads had a ton of seeds - note for next year in case I want to save them.

This is the house on the east side of Wyoming Ave., just south of South Orange Ave., that has a lovely overflowing garden in front. I thought the pink flowers in the back were pretty and would look great in my garden. They're quite tall.

They had some echinacea leaning up against these unobtrusive little fences, which I thought was a good solution to the plants falling down as mine are.

This moth was on the outside of our solarium window a week or so ago, and I photographed its underside from inside the house. Pretty! Now go away, you creepy insect.

Finally, I spotted a purple finch outside the solarium this past week. No photo.

It's not safe to be a squirrel

A couple weeks ago there was a dead squirrel in our yard with one of its front limbs ripped off. Grisly. We called the town's animal control office and the very nice Melanie came and bagged it and carted it off. She suspected a fox killed it.

Today, a red-tailed hawk swooped onto the ground outside the solarium, and flew into a tree a few seconds later, then off northwards a few seconds after that. No time for a photo, but in going out to investigate, I found another dead squirrel. So either the hawk killed it and left it there, or the dead squirrel attracted the hawk. Melanie again came by and removed it. She was surprised to see no marks on it.

I think we all know how I feel about the squirrels so I'm just hoping that whatever is killing them likes it here. Welcome, squirrel assassin(s).

Gaps in the front landscaping

This pic just shows some of the spots where I could plant next year (and bulbs!) where there currently isn't anything.

Garden happenings

Despite earlier attack by what might have been a deer, the echinacea is now blooming beautifully.

And this is a balloon flower, which also got chomped on a while back but has likewise recovered. It is pretty but it looks way too much like the perennial geraniums that cover a lot of the bottom of the hill. Side note: this is one of the many species that did not appear on the list of things Birch Hill was going to plant, but here they are! 

Below some views of the front yard.

Verbena in front.

Again verbena. Portulaca on left. Lavendar and peony as you move back.

Artemesia, brachyscome, basil. The basil has been great. Lots of pesto!

Brachyscome and portulaca.

Portulaca.

Remember the late-blooming rhododendrons? Well hold onto your hat when you look at THIS: the magnolia tree is now blooming. IN JULY. It's the end of the world as we know it.

Forgive the photo taken through the window screen.

Wildlife

First, I must lament that I found an abominable squirrel munching this week on my portulaca. All non-chalant, he was. It was infuriating.

But this was nice - just before I took this picture, the dove was all huddled down and looked exactly like a rock in the wall. It was sort of amazing.

And then these two splendid deer were undeterred by heavy rain this morning and ate their way across our back wall.

Late bloomers and revolting beetles

I don't remember this happening last year, though quite possibly it did, but the rhododendron bush behind the bird-favored evergreen bush, just outside the solarium, started blooming in late June and peaked around July 1 - wayyy after the other, purple rhododendrons. It was quite lovely; the pictures below don't do it justice.

Then there are my small, belated alliums. Here they are on June 26 (the hand is Emma's).

And here they are today, below (hand is mine) Does this represent a full bloom? If so, pretty disappointing! I had to stake two of them, too, lest they should fall over.

Is it my imagination, or is the hydrangea doing better than last year? I don't seem to have any pictures from last June/July. Also note the little seedling hydrangea on the left - doing very well.

Below we have a repulsive oriental beetle, [Anomala (=Exomala) orientalis] that I killed. Apparently the grubs of this thing are what destroys a lot of Jersey lawns. Blech. http://njaes.rutgers.edu:8080/pubs/fs1009/